World Class Maths: Asian Teaching Practice

With seemingly superior mathematics performance in some Asian countries, there is a lot that can be learned from the techniques and methods these countries embed in their teaching.

On this four-week course from Macmillan Education and the University of Southampton, you’ll examine the key features of Asian maths teaching methods in greater depth and discover how to put them into practice in your own maths teaching.

The CPA approach describes how mathematical skills and concepts can be taught effectively by starting off with something concrete, then using visualisations and imagery, and finally working towards abstract notations.

You’ll learn the basics of this approach, looking at the psychology behind it and why it’s an effective tool for teaching maths at different levels. Then, you’ll move on to explore CPA sequence examples and solutions.

One example of CPA is the Bar Model method, a visual approach that can aid in understanding fractions, ratios, and percentages.

During the third week of this course, you’ll do a deep dive into the Bar Model, exploring the basics of this method before completing several Bar Model tasks yourself.

Throughout this course, you’ll examine how to incorporate each of these Asian teaching methods into your own classroom. From the Cognitive Pictorial Abstract approach and the Bar Model method to Variation theory, you’ll explore ways to plan your lessons with these skills in mind to improve the efficacy of your maths teaching.